Sprinklings of history, a smidgen of genealogy, a dash of art & a dusting of architecture, all mixed together with my eccentric fascinations

25 July 2013

Talking Heads?

Locations of some heads are circled

Anton Teutenberg would have had no inkling when
he departed Hüsten in Prussia
on 11 March 1866 that he would be remembered almost 150 years later, in a small
country on the other side of the world, for his stone carvings of famous people
and gargoyles.

Born on 4 December 1840, Ferdinand Anton
Nicolaus Teutenbergwas
the son of Ludwig Teutenberg, a gunsmith to King Friedrich
Wilhelm IV of Prussia.
It was his brother Frederick, who had travelled to New
Zealand with Gustavus von Tempsky (a fellow Prussian, and
a soldier and painter of some repute), who convinced Anton to come to New Zealand
with his two sisters and a nephew.

Perhaps to amuse himself during the long trip out
from England,
on the Clyde-built ship the Rob Roy,
Anton carved some wooden scrollwork for the ship captain’s gig. It was an
auspicious amusement, as the captain showed the work to local architect Edward
Rumsey, who was impressed enough subsequently to commission Teutenberg to
prepare some carvings for Auckland city’s new Supreme Court (now the Auckland High
Court) in Waterloo Quadrant in the central city.

The Duke and Duchess of Kent

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Though he was an engraver by trade and had never
carved in stone before, Teutenberg was paid 15 shillings a piece for a series
of limestone heads of foreign and local dignitaries to adorn the label-stops of
the grand new building, which sported imposing Gothic-style castellated towers.

According to an article in the Evening
Post of 12 October 1926, Teutenberg ‘began with the figures on the
colonnade, and moulded the figures of the Duke and Duchess of Kent (father and
mother of Queen Victoria), Queen Victoria herself
and her beloved Prince Albert,
Lord Westbury and Lord Chief Justice Campbell, from sketches and photographs
supplied by the architect.’

As well as these six
heads, the portico features two more, ten heads adorn the windows high on the
western side of the building (the side now enclosed in the foyer of the modern
extension to the court building), and still others adorn the windows of the tall
central tower. I counted thirty heads but there may be more as I can’t see the
back part of the central tower. There are, in fact, some duplications: there’s
a particularly grumpy-looking woman who’s been reproduced three times, there
are two Queen Victorias, and two heads of Blind Justice, amongst others.

The three grumpy old women

The two Queen Victorias

The identification of many of these heads remains
uncertain - if only they could talk. In his New Zealand Sculpture,
author Michael Dunn states that the other heads included people of importance
in New Zealand’s
early history, twice-governor Sir George Grey and Edward
Gibbon Wakefield. An Auckland Star
article, dated 15 February 1936, says Teutenberg

girdled the building
with a series of heads, including those of judges many of whom in the present
day cannot be identified. There must have been a streak of Puckish humour in
this artist of the 'sixties, for it is shown clearly in his arrangement of some
of the figures and his personification of some characters, which may even be
caricatures. Bossing the label moulds of the Gothic arches at the side of the portico
are the partnered heads of Socrates and the Maori warrior Hone Heke, while
below them are two other heads similarly opposite in character.

Though Teutenberg himself considered the carvings no more than a
hobby, he went on to carve similar heads for at least two more Auckland
buildings, the Shortland Street Post Office (now-demolished but catalogued in
wonderful detail by local historian Lisa Truttman in her Timespanner blog) and the Pitt Street Methodist Church (watch out for a
future blog).

The simple lines of his work betray his exceptional artist
ability, and Supreme Court architect Rumsey was so pleased with Teutenberg’s
heads that he then gave the sculptor free reign to design the remarkable
gargoyles that adorn the rest of the building … but that, as they say, is
another story.

About Me

I am a writer and photographer; project
manager and English teacher; knitter and genealogist; fungi forayer and bird
watcher; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and child sponsor; tree
lover and cat person; researcher and blogger; nemophilist; and traveller.